Essential Las Vegas News, Tips, Deals and WTF.

Monthly Archives: February 2017

The next time you swing by Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar & Grill at Harrah’s Las Vegas, look up. There, you’ll see some new flair, specifically, red Solo cup chandeliers.

Yes, that’s an actual thing.

We are not making this up.

I Love This Bar & Grill at Harrah’s has been serving up ample portions of American favorites delivered by attractive young women in assless chaps since June 29, 2005.

“Red Solo Cup,” of course, was a big hit by Toby Keith, so it follows his namesake restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip would have accoutrements inspired by the song. The video for “Red Solo Cup” has received more than 37 million views on YouTube.

It’s time to go ears deep into the latest episode of the Vital Vegas Podcast.

First, we congratulate ourself on reaching our first 100,000 podcast downloads! It’s more like 108,097, but who’s counting?

Also on the show, we share tons of scoop about construction commencing on the new 18 Fremont resort project. Demolition of two shops marks the official beginning of what will become a resort taking up a full block on Fremont Street, including the closed Las Vegas Club casino, Glitter Gulch strip club and Mermaids casino.

Many great Las Vegas resorts have sprung from humble beginnings. This qualifies. Demolition of two shops has carved a path from an alleyway to Fremont Street. There’s a lot more to come.

You’ll also hear from veteran food critic John Curtas, co-author of “Eating Las Vegas,” the definitive guide to 50 essential Las Vegas restaurants. On his Web site, EatingLV.com, Curtas speaks his mind like few others in Las Vegas, and shares his picks for the best dining in Sin City, including his five favorite steakhouses.

As usual, you’ll get an earful of Las Vegas news and history, and the “Listicle of the Week” features 10 predictions about your next Las Vegas visit from special guest, Pappy.

Think Zoltar, but more prospectory. Which may or may not be a word.

This week’s show has even more WTF than the Oscars, so break out the earbuds and roll around naked in a giant pile of Vegas.

There are so many great restaurants in Las Vegas, we tend to take some of them for granted. Harvest at Bellagio is one of these unsung Las Vegas restaurants, despite the fact we’re about to sing its praises. Look introductory paragraphs are hard, so let’s keep moving.

The seafood platter ($50) will get things off to a rousing start. There’s gulf shrimp, oysters, clams, lobster salad, poke, king crab and snow crab.

Harvest’s full name is actually Harvest by Roy Ellamar. We tend not to call it that, however, because we honestly wouldn’t know a Roy Ellamar if we tripped over him.

Whoever he or she might be (it’s Vegas, you just never know), Roy Ellamar puts out a fine spread.

Tear yourself away from the seafood for a minute to take part in a time-honored Las Vegas restaurant tradition, filling up on bread.

Harvest hasn’t been around too long. It opened in December 2015. Harvest was the result of an expensive renovation of a space previously occupied by Sensi. Roy Ellamar was a chef at Sensi.
Ah, the circularity of the restaurant universe.

It’s fun seeing your food being prepared, although it can lead to feelings of inadequacy in one’s cooking ability. Or what we like to call “juliennenvy.”

Harvest at Bellagio is touted as a “farm-to-table” restaurant concept. We don’t entirely get the whole “farm-to-table” thing. Doesn’t everything in a restaurant come from a farm? Personally, we’d like to see a “farm-to-plate” concept instead, because the only place you should eating off a table is that “Tournament of Kings” show at Excalibur.

The Harvest salad is like an edible work of art, and we are not even a salad person.

Harvest at Bellagio is touted as featuring “New American cuisine and seasonal menus inspired by regional farms.” The dishes are also said to be “creative, market-driven dishes that celebrate regional produce in spectacular Sin City fashion.”

Oh, just put some food in our collective face, already.

It’s entirely possible this was the smoked salmon toast. Note taking is for suckers.

The menu at Harvest is carved neatly into digestible sections: Pre-game dishes are divided into Garden, Ocean and Boards. Entrees are categorized as Ranch, Ocean or Vegetarian. Entrees run in the $35-50 range.

There’s a lot to love at Harvest, so pace yourself.

This lobster just flew in from Maine, and boy were its pereiopods tired.

The signature cocktails at Harvest are irresistible, and showcased on an iPad menu. That’s a thing at Vegas restaurants at the moment.

The Pear Harvest ($17) won the night with Gray Goose La Poire vodka, Rekorderlig Pear Cider, Pallini Limoncello, Madagascar vanilla syrup, southwest prickly pear juice, lemon juice and brûléed pear, which seemed to be showing off a little with all the accent marks.

The only weak element of our meal was the filet mignon ($50). It was under-seasoned, but a lone less-than-stellar dish can’t diminish a meal consisting of so many others that are outstanding.

The filet was pretty good, but in Las Vegas, it’s tough to impress when the bar is so high.

You’ll want to save room for dessert, although, good luck with that. Try the apple doughnut. We cut it open for your viewing pleasure.

Apples only have about 40 calories, so if you ignore the “doughnut” part, you’re keeping to your diet.

You’re sure to love Harvest, especially if you love seafood. The mood is mellow and refined, and the service is what you’ve come to expect from a restaurant with entrees in the $50 range on the Las Vegas Strip. Specifically, your server will be professional, knowledgeable and possess just the right about of “leave us alone when we want to be left alone.”

Notice how we foreshadowed the bar in that earlier photo caption? You’re not dealing with a gulf shrimp here.

Harvest is located at Bellagio’s Spa Tower, past the Essentials store. Yes, every Las Vegas hotel has a shop named Essentials. It’s the law.

Pawn Plaza has been shuffling its deck of shops, with most of its restaurants closing in recent months. Now, it’s doubling down on classic American fare in the form of Jared’s Old-Fashioned Hot Dogs & Hamburgers.

Hungry? Oh, you will be.

Jared’s has taken up residence where Smoke’s Poutinerie used to be, right next to the closed Inna Gadda di Pizza. The delicious Rita’s Italian Ice also closed as well, but the owner of Jared’s, Jared DeBehnke, is undeterred.

Just like at the Downtown Container Park, Pawn Plaza’s shops occupy shipping containers.

The hot dogs at Jared’s are sourced out of a farm in Wyoming, but DeBehnke won’t spill about which one. We have our team of investigators on the case, though, because we’re calling these bad boys the best hot dogs in Las Vegas at the moment.

Our tastes are simple, and Jared’s knocks it out of the ballpark, frankly.

The hot dogs are 100% beef with a natural casing, and the chili is top-notch. There’s no cheese sauce, it’s grated fresh daily.

Loved the chili, and we aren’t a chili person.

The burgers are excellent as well, and that’s saying a lot in a town where there are so many stellar hamburger joints.

The burgers are a third-of-a-pound, never frozen and the selection of a dozen or so toppings are included in the price. We enjoyed the mushrooms and onions, despite the fact we tend to like our burgers naked. Like our truth.

Beyond the meats, we’re a big fan of the buns on both the burgers and the dogs. So much so, we’re currently licking our computer monitor.

Anything you’re able to get that you can dip into Jared’s Sauce, do.

It rocked our onion rings, but we suspect it would also be fantastic on the fries or tater tots, too. It’s a little bit honey mustard, a little BBQ. We’d put it right up there with the signature sauces at Chick-fil-A or Raising Cane’s.

Yes, we made a Jared’s Sauce joke. Thank you for the courtesy laugh, Jared.

If Jared DeBehnke looks familiar, it’s because not only is his face on the signage, he’s the same guy who owns the Slingshot rental stand at Pawn Plaza.

When DeBehnke saw the space become available, he jumped a the chance to give a restaurant a go, and we’re happy he did, as it’s going into our lunchtime rotation.

Simple, yet all the bases are covered. Yes, that’s two sports analogies in one blog post. Hint: We’re drunk.

At the moment, Jared’s Old Fashioned Hot Dogs & Hamburgers has limited hours, during the aforementioned lunchtime, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. We suspect those hours will be expanded once positive word-of-mouth starts to spread.

For now, the only competition for Jared’s is the solid Rick’s Rollin Smoke BBQ & Tavern. The prices at Jared’s are roughly half of what Rick’s Rollin Smoke charges. Then again, Jared’s doesn’t have hooch.

At Jared’s, it’s not about ambiance. You can’t slather mustard all over ambiance. At least not legally.

Here’s hoping the quality and prices at Jared’s Old-Fashioned Hot Dogs & Hamburgers help it thrive as Pawn Plaza sorts out its line-up of shops and restaurants.

“Tasty-as-hell” apparently wouldn’t fit on the sign.

The throngs of visitors to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, featured in “Pawn Stars,” provide a steady supply of customers (DeBehnke says they’re getting lots of downtown denizens, too), but in the past, it’s been challenging to get them to stay and spend at Pawn Plaza. We’re thinking Jared’s Old Fashioned Hot Dogs & Hamburgers is a great reason to stick around.

There were no fireworks, no gold-plated shovels, no mayoral Proclamations. There were none of the trappings of a Las Vegas resort groundbreaking, but it was, indeed, just that.

That tingling sensation you feel isn’t numbness resulting from sitting at a slot machine too long, it’s the excitement of knowing a long-awaited Las Vegas resort is finally in the works on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas. We’ve got all the exclusive scoop! Because having an “exclusive” is nearly as good as “having a life,” and that’s the story we’re sticking to.

Construction, or more accurately “deconstruction,” has quietly begun on a new hotel-casino from Derek and Greg Stevens, owners of Golden Gate and The D Las Vegas.

“What construction?” you ask. We’re trying to build some suspense here, just play along for once.

Owner Derek Stevens has said he’s attended more than 50 design meetings for the new downtown resort. While it doesn’t have a name yet, its placeholder name is “18 Fremont.”

A modest demolition project, not easily seen by pedestrians on Fremont Street, marks the beginning of a major (and expensive) construction project which will make the new resort a reality.

The demolition is happening behind two closed shops, Blowout and Forever Flawless. Demolition crews are making quick work of the structure.

Boom. Work on the next Las Vegas casino resort begins, sans hoopla, which would make a good band name.

Blowout and the Forever Flawless store (covering a tiny 0.08 acres) cost the Stevens brothers a steep $13.5 million. Millionaires be crazy, as the kids say, but there was a method behind the madness.

The shops were a critical element of a series of acquisitions allowing for 18 Fremont to encompass a full block, spanning a stretch of Fremont between Binion’s and the Plaza casino.

This is how the lot looked midday. Keep reading to see how it looked a couple of hours later. Suspenseful, right?

The Stevens also acquired a parcel across the street from the Las Vegas Club, between Plaza and Main Street Station, for $7.5 million.

Yes, there will be a quiz.

A couple of hours later and virtually nothing of the shops remains. They’re going to need a really big vacuum cleaner.

Why is the demolition of the Blowout and Forever Flawless shops so important to the 18 Fremont project? We won’t ruin the surprise. (Suspense!) All we can say is there’s equipment in motion at 18 Fremont and that’s enough to get us excited about what’s to come.

Derek Stevens and others involved in the project have been tight-lipped about specifics of the new resort, but Stevens has at various times hinted it’s likely to take downtown’s pool scene to a whole new level. On an episode of our podcast, Stevens described downtown Las Vegas as “underpooled.”

The casino will be the centerpiece of the resort, of course, but multiple restaurant and bar offerings will also be in the mix. Stevens has also said it’s likely the resort will have a spa, but relatively few specifics about the resort have been shared to-date. Hey, we’re working on it.

Look closely. The shops are now see-through.

It’s been confirmed the Las Vegas Club hotel towers (and indeed all the structures on the block) will be demolished, but not with an implosion.

After watching failed casino projects like Alon, and seemingly stalled projects like Resorts World, it’s refreshing to see a Las Vegas casino project moving forward full steam ahead. Millennial translation: Nobody’s come up with a better way of saying “full steam ahead” since the steam engine, sorry.

Here’s a peek inside what was the Blowout gift shop. Their inventory now consists largely of debris.

This new resort represents not only hundreds of millions of dollars of investment, but also an entirely new place for us to drink Captain Morgan and diets and play Top Dollar. Just keeping it real.

The forever forgettable Forever Flawless. Anything that decreases the number of annoying salespeople chasing us down Fremont Street Experience (where we work in marketing as our day job) hawking face cream is fine by us.

Here’s a little help with where this demolition site is in relation to things you might recognize, specifically a strip club and some classic neon, including Vegas Vickie.

The good news is we can all start using “Glitter Gulch” again without feeling the urge to get a “Silkwood” shower.

Update (2/23/17): Things move fast in Vegas, and what a difference 24 hours can make. Here’s a photo to keep you abreast, and not just because we love using the word “abreast” as often as possible.

Did we mention these demolition guys don’t mess around?

It’s a pretty straight shot to Fremont Street now.

Demolition guys must have really organized closets.

Demolition of the Blowout and Forever Flawless shops is expected to take just a few days (Feb. 24, 2017 is the expected completion date), but there’s much more in the works, so anticipate a cavalcade of security breaches in the months to come.

Update (2/26/17): Like we said, blink and you’ll miss it. We’re pretty sure we said that. Anyway, here’s another look at the site. Cleans up real nice.

A good many great things begin in tiny spaces. Which sounds a lot dirtier than it is.

Yes, yes, there’s video. Demanding, much?

We trust this won’t be our last update about the 18 Fremont construction project, so visit this Las Vegas blog often. Hourly, if possible. No pressure.

Zydeco Po-Boys opened mid-2015, a partnership between its owner Brandon Trahan and Zappos CEO Tony’s Hsieh’s Downtown Project. The restaurant is located a block south of Fremont Street, on Carson Ave.

How do you say “This sucks” in that funky Cajun French talk?

The restaurant announced it will close in a Facebook post. The post read, “It’s with a heavy heart that I announce Zydeco Po-Boys will be closing its doors on March 3rd.”

The post from owner Brandon Trahan continues, “On behalf of my staff and I, we wish to thank Tony and the staff of Downtown Project for the opportunity to be part of the downtown revitalization. We wish to thank all of our loyal supporters who came out over the last year and a half to dine with us. It has been a pleasure to share my Cajun heritage and cooking with y’all. We wish the continued success of our friends and downtown neighbors and to all of the projects efforts.”

For awhile, Downtown Project dumped a ton of cash into businesses losing money. Now, not so much.

Trahan opened Zydeco Po-Boys after losing his home and business to Hurricane Rita in 2005.

Downtown has experienced a restaurant boom in recent years, but even a boom has casualties. Beyond Glutton and Zydeco Po-Boys, other downtown casualties include Itsy Bitsy Ramen & Whiskey (at The Ogden), Inna Gadda di Pizza and Smoke’s Poutinerie at Pawn Plaza and F. Pigalle on Fremont Street.

When it comes to Las Vegas restaurants, it’s dog eat dog, which, if you think about it, is a truly inane cliche. The original phrase was “Dog does not eat dog,” which makes a good deal more sense. We blame it on the millennials.

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